A preliminary study of stress symptoms and nutritional state in children

Abstract

S h o r t c o m m u n i c a t i o n : A p r e l i m i n a r y s t u d y o f s t r e s s s y m p t o m s a n d n u t r i t i o n a l s t a t e i n c h i l d r e n

Cognitive Performance and Morning Levels of Salivary Cortisol and α-Amylase in Children Reporting High vs. Low Daily Stress Perception

“…In children, daily or everyday mild stress may be caused by moderately unpleasant events occurring in their family, school, and/or deriving from health changes (Birch, 1998; Del Barrio, 1997;Milgram, 1992). Marital conflict between parents (Cummings, Davies, & Simpson, 1994), as well as financial difficulties in the family (Flinn & England, 1997;Langrock, Compas, Keller, Merchant, & Copeland, 2002;Seifer et al, 1996), fear of poor health (Parmelee, 1997), being overweight (Birch, 1998;Stefanello, 2004), perceived or actual discrimination by teachers (Piekarska, 2000), problems and difficulties in the study of subjects (Roeser & Eccles, 1998;Torsheim & Wold, 2001;Torsheim, Aaroe y Wold, 2003) or bullying by other children at school (Raviv et al, 2001;Richters & Martinez, 1993) have all been shown to negatively impact the health and psychological development of children. The perception of these stressors can induce in children changes in the neuroendocrine stress axis, namely: the symphatetic-adrenal-medullary (SAM) system (also termed the LC-NE system) and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis (Aston-Jones & Cohen, 2005;Chrousos & Gold, 1992;Turner-Cobb, 2005).…”